If you lived in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, and you like bad Italian food, it's completely possible that Jackie Earle Haley delivered a pizza to your doorstep. After acting work disappeared, the child star, who once played Kelly Leak in "The Bad News Bears" and Moocher in "Breaking Away," also took jobs as a limousine driver and security guard.

"There was a bunch of stuff like that," Haley said during an interview last week. "I remember one time delivering a pizza to Richard Halsey, the editor for 'Losin' It.' ... So that was fun. Showing up in my pizza delivery outfit, and the door opens. It's like 'Hi! How are you doing?' "

More than a decade later, Haley has come back from obscurity, with arguably the performance of the year as a complicated sex offender in Todd Field's "Little Children." He also co-starred with Sean Penn, Jude Law and Anthony Hopkins in "All the King's Men."

Which raises the questions: How many other great actors from the 1970s and '80s were forced into retirement long before they reached their peak? Would movies be that much worse if our hardest-working, straight-to-video thespians suddenly switched places with the Hollywood elite? Is there any question that "Babel" would have been better with William Zabka in the lead role instead of Brad Pitt?

Events of the past few years have really thrown a hand grenade in what it means to be a great actor. Anyone who used to watch bad television and now watches good cinema knows that Haley's feel-good story isn't an isolated incident.

Geri Jewell, who had peaked in the 1980s with a few guest spots as Blair's cousin with cerebral palsy on "The Facts of Life," was rediscovered by David Milch while waiting in line at a Santa Monica pharmacy, and she now co-stars on the acclaimed HBO drama "Deadwood." Former "Wings" star Thomas Haden Church had semi-retired to his Texas ranch before being lured back into acting for 2004's "Sideways." (He co-stars as the Sandman in this summer's "Spider-Man 3.")

And more directors seem to be taking the approach of Quentin Tarantino, who has resurrected two or three careers per movie since 1992's "Reservoir Dogs," when he introduced screen legend Lawrence Tierney to a new generation. Rob Zombie's excellent 2005 horror film "The Devil's Rejects" was populated with a constellation of fallen stars -- from the guy who played Peter in "Dawn of the Dead" (Ken Foree) to the actress who played Terri on "Three's Company" (Priscilla Barnes).

With the 49ers and Raiders out of the playoffs, my only rooting interests in the new year are with the Golden State Warriors and Haley. If he gets a best supporting actor Academy Award nomination when announcements are made Jan. 23, it will be a better underdog story than any piece of cinema in recent memory.

Haley's journey becomes more amazing when you look at the gap between acting jobs. His last two film roles before "All the King's Men" were both in 1993 -- TV's "Prophet of Evil: The Ervil LeBaron Story" and "Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence." (The latter film also starred Robert Forster, who made a similar Lazarus acting turn in Tarantino's "Jackie Brown.")

Inspiring stories such as Haley's are all the more welcome when you see how obnoxious much of Hollywood has become. Just look at what the typical celebrity names their child. Apple? Kal-El? Pilot Inspektor?!? It's clear these people are out of control.

What true film lover wouldn't like to scrap half of the A-list and start over from scratch, with actors who will appreciate what they've been given? And now that we know the guy who played Coolidge in "The White Shadow" can probably do a better job than Will Smith at one-fiftieth the cost, what studio in their right mind would want to hire the Fresh Prince again?

I'm suggesting nothing short of a complete Halliburton-style, build-it-from-the-ground-up, restructuring of Hollywood. Here's the new world order:

-- Good actors who mind their own business between movies, have a ratio of two good films for every crappy pay-the-bills blockbuster and do voice-over narration for quality documentaries and PBS specials get to stay.

-- Anyone who has ever sold a picture of themselves to a celebrity magazine, even if the proceeds go to charity, is out.

-- Anyone who starts their own production company, using it to make bad television sitcoms or horror films, is out.

-- Leonardo DiCaprio can stay, as long as he agrees to work with at least one of his former "Growing Pains" co-stars per year.

-- Anyone who hangs out at Ashton Kutcher's bar, or appears in an "Ocean's 11" movie, is out. (Matt Damon gets a waiver on the basis of his performance in "The Talented Mr. Ripley," but we're filing one of those gang injunctions that prohibits him from congregating with Affleck after a 10 p.m. curfew.)